Lindsay Ell

A powerful, blues-based guitarist who also has a gift for melodic country, Lindsay Ell defied any easy genre classification. Nominally a country artist, Ell does have a knack for sun-kissed acoustic numbers, yet she also underpins her music with soulful rhythms and wraps everything in shiny, inviting package. This combination is showcased on The Project, her 2017 breakthrough album, and reached fruition on Heart Theory, a 2020 album that gave Ell her first number-one hit in Canada with “Want Me Back.” Its success propelled Ell into Canada’s Got Talent, which she hosted in its second season in 2022, right around the time she released the glossy pop single “Right on Time.”
Lindsay Ell was born in Calgary, Alberta on March 20, 1989. She was drawn to music from the beginning, starting to play piano at the age of six, switching to guitar at eight, and by ten, she was writing songs and perfecting her guitar skills at bluegrass camps, soaking up all the country music she could. By the time she met Randy Bachman when she was 13, Ell had developed into a dynamite electric guitar player with a sweet and easy country-pop vocal style, a female counterpart to guitar-slinging country artists like Keith Urban and Brad Paisley. Bachman became her mentor, introducing her to the work of various jazz and blues guitar players, and Ell fell in love with the blues, studying it along with music by the best rock guitarists, from Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix to Stevie Ray Vaughan and Derek Trucks. Soon she was sharing stages with the likes of Buddy Guy and others, always bringing her own vibrant mix of country and gritty electric guitar. Bachman produced her first album, Consider This, which was released on his Ranbach Music label in 2006. Her second release, 2009′s Alone, had a more acoustic veneer. Signing with Stoney Creek Records, she released the infectious country single “Trippin’ on Us” in the fall of 2013. Two more singles — “Pickup Truck” and “Shut Me Up” — followed in 2014, both of them reaching the Top 20. Another single, “By the Way,” arrived in 2015, but 2016′s “All Alright” reached Canada’s Country Top Ten. Her debut EP, aptly titled Worth the Wait, arrived in the spring of 2017 and was followed later that summer by her first album, The Project.
The Project reached number four on Billboard’s Country chart. A year later, The Continuum Project saw Ell covering John Mayer’s 2006 Continuum album in its entirety; she cut this record as “homework” while prepping The Project.
In 2019, Ell appeared as Brantley Gilbert’s duet partner on his “What Happens in a Small Town,” a single that topped the Billboard Country Airplay charts. Ell released her second proper solo album Heart Theory, a concept LP about the seven stages of grief, in August 2020. It reached number five in Canada, thanks in part to the Canadian chart-topper “Want Me Back.” The hit elevated Ell’s profile. By the end of 2021, she appeared alongside Lee Brice on Cheat Codes’ single “How Do You Love” and duetted with Chayce Beckham on “Can’t Do Without Me.” Ell co-hosted the Canadian Country Music Awards and the second season of Canada’s Got Talent, which aired in 2022, right around the time she released the glossy pop single “Right on Time.” ~ Steve Leggett